You used to have to pay to read Scott McCloud’s The Right Number. But now you can see it for free! Good story… I’m looking forward to Part 3.
Monthly Archive for April, 2007
In the aftermath of Lado Japan’s sad demise, there has been a flurry of contact between former Lado teachers and staff, and I’m pleased to say Udo Bartsch in Cape Town has also been in touch with the wonderful news that he and Humi finally got hitched last January. (Congratulations to you both!) Not only that but he has recently gotten involved in something very important. In his own words:
I want to tell you an exciting story about some little people that I’ve met who got a really really raw deal. I have just (last Wednesday) become uncle to about 40 of the cutest, wide eyed little kids with snot and other things running down their faces etc. What a rush! I got involved in an NPO (Non Profit Organisation) , called Intyatyambo. It’s a registered and fully above board NPO. “Intyatyambo” means “flowers” in Xhosa, the main language in the area. It’s an orphanage run by a truly amazing woman, Lindiwe, and about six other wonderful women who take care of the kids, aged 18 months to 6 years old. They’re basd in a run down shack in one of the
largest townships outside Cape Town, called Khayalitsha. 8 of the kids are HIV positive. Some of them were found abadoned under bushes, some have been badly abused (including rape). Others have parents who drop them off in the mornings, but they can’t afford a private facility for their kids. They are not government funded and need about R960 (Y18000) per week to feed all the kiddies. They don’t always raise the required amount and then the kids fast for a while. Very healthy!
My involvemnt since Wednesday:
I’ve commited some of my time in the future and my building skills to train some, as yet, unskilled and unemployed men and women in the area to become builders. Their first project will be to build our orphanage. Free.
I’m also trying get sponsors. I called the brick company where I did my brick laying course. They offered to do the training (Phew! Got out of that one) and supply all
the bricks for the new orphanage, which is going to be kickass! Free.
An architect has agreed to draw up the plans and walk them through until approved by the CT Municipality. Free.
My favourite internet cafe just down the road is designing the website which will be up and running very soon and in several languages, including Japanese. Free.
We’re looking around for two adjacent plots in the area, to buy. Not Free.
… Interested? Want to help? Here’s how:
Next time you go out on an Izakaya and Karaoke ( I can’t tell you how much I miss that) or club night, I want you to keep track of how much you spend. Then put the same amount in your other pocket. Then send it to Intyatyambo. We need to buy the plots asap and get the ball rolling.
Short term target : R60000 (Y1200000 - one point two mil Yen)to buy the plots, get some warm clothes and blankets, fill up the food kitty and other things.
We want to take in more kids - up to 150. There is an endless supply of abandoned and abused innocents here.
I need one individual to coordinate fund raising in Tokyo and send the funds when some has accumulated. This will require a few hours a week at most.
Most of all, we need exposure. So if this interests you, please talk about it. Ultimately we want corporate sponsors to cover food for the kids and a basic salary for the women on a permanent basis.
If we raise more than we need, we will donate the excess to similar NPOs and help them with what we’ve learned along the way.
Think about it please.
OK. So, if anyone wants to make a donation email me here: luain34@yahoo.co.uk
and I will send you the necessary bank details. And I’ll probably be posting more information about Intyatyambo later on, as I learn more about it from Udo.
Here’s a song from South African band Mafikizolo, a tribute to band member Tebogo Benedict Madingoane who was shot and killed in 2004. Even in the midst of pain and grief we can still make something beautiful. Enjoy!
Rik has already posted this, but it’s so good I’m going to post it too. Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip:
Last December, Sunny Place, a vegan restaurant previously situated in Kitayama, moved serendipitously not a five minute cycle ride from my house. It’s name is apt, as it’s a friendly shop so I went to eat there last night figuring it would help fix my bluesy mood. They have a nice range of Coedo organic beers, so last night I tried the “Beniaka”.
It gets that red colour from the sweet potatoes used in the recipe, - an interesting roasted malty flavor. With whatever main dish you choose you get rice (whole grain mixed with healthy cereals) and soup (kasu jiru - a healthy broth made from sake lees), and three side dishes of your choosing.
They do a range of fake-meats there, pork, chicken etc. I chose the “chicken” done kara-age style.
I personally don’t have any cravings for meat flavored food, but I know a lot of people find it difficult to become vegetarian simply because they cannot give up their tasty fried chicken. Is this a solution? Well, check out that texture, though made from soya beans it sure looks like chicken:
It doesn’t quite taste like chicken though. Almost. But not quite. Still, ten out of ten for effort. The food is reasonably priced and plentiful and the atmosphere relaxed. I’d certainly recommend it over the nearby Café Peace, these days. Sadly, rumors of impending bankruptcy at Peace are only confirmed by the ever decreasing portions, and severely reduced variety in the menu… At Sunny Place you won’t be dissatisfied. To find Sunny Place, head west on Imadegawa from Hyakumanben, then go north on Marikoji Dori.
Tae-san sent me these pictures from our cherry-blossom viewing party a couple of weeks ago. I think she has a good eye for the big picture…
The girl sitting behind me in the picture below is Yoko. For the last two years, I’ve been working every Saturday morning at a mental clinic and she is one of the staff there. But soon she’s moving back to Tokyo and so today was the last day she attended the English Conversation Group… I shall miss that smile brightening up my Saturday mornings. But all things, like the cherry blossom, must pass. (slightly deeper than usual sigh)
On my way home from the clinic I stopped by Houzouji for the latest meditation:
Fairly typical Buddhist stock-in-trade this time:
人間の_________________にんげんの_____________ningen no
限りない欲______________かぎりないよく____________kagirinai yoku
制止するのは____________せいしするのは___________seishi suru no ha
足るを知る心____________たるをしるこころ___________taru wo shiru kokoro
Which can be roughly translated as:
The heart that knows satisfaction
Is that which restrains
the ceaseless desire
of mankind
I say roughly because I’m taking the easy way out of translating it back to front, which sounds more natural in English, but affects the emphasis a tad. Anyway, you get the idea. It’s the basic Buddhist teaching that all suffering comes from desire and in restraining desire we heal oursleves of suffering. No matter how many times I repeat this to myself, I’m still not feeling it though.
I’m feeling a bit flush these days… well flusher than I have been in a long while so I decided to spoil myself by ordering some books I’ve been aching for, for absolute eons. And hat’s off to amazon.co.jp for getting my books to me within 24 hours! That’s pretty remarkable service really. Pity they don’t take cash payments anymore though…
Anyway, I’ve already read one of them. Neil Gaiman’s Dream Hunters.
This is a very nice volume, subtley blending an old Japanese fable with the world of the Sandman comics, although this itself is not a comic but an illustrated short story. Gaiman himself writes that when he first discovered this story he was “struck by the similarities - some of them almost disquieting - between the Japanese tale and my own Sandman series”. He retells this tale of a fox’s love for a monk very nicely indeed…
But why am I buying books when there is so much stuff on the web for free? I recently discovered the audio stories on Well Told Tales. You can download them or simply listen to them online, good to listen to while cooking or cleaning or doing other domestic things. I really liked the Hand Of God story about using time travel to undo one of the most infamous injustices of sporting history.
And there’s a whole bunch of links to the stories nominated for this years Hugo Awards up here: Hugo Nominees. Again, Neil Gaiman’s How To Talk To Girls At Parties is a classic. “Just talk to them… it’s not like they are from another planet!” Brilliant conceit!
God I love free stuff. Good night.
It SEEMS the World Bank aint protecting our forests in the Congo. There are a lot cousins (gorillas, chimps and bonobos) feeling the pinch my friends. And cutting down our rainforests for short term profits… WELL! How do you feel about that? Do you think you could add your name to a letter asking them to pay more due care and attention to what they are funding? Hmm? I reckon it would take hmmm - 2 minutes tops. Or alternatively you could sniff it away thinking TOO BUSY! STUFF TO DO! TIRESOME etc… But I know you better. You won’t do that. You’re my friend. You like those bonobos. And the bonobos need you. Yeah?
Click here: PROTECT THE CONGO
Apt video:
I gave my first-year students a questionaire, in which I encouraged them to recommend some English songs that I might use for listening practice… So I’ve just spent the last few hours downloading and checking their choices, just to see if they are suitable or not. Thus I find myself (oh horrors!) listening to the Back Street Boys… and Avril Lavigne… and trying to solve that timeless conundrum: which is the best Spice Girls’ Song? I drew the line at Britney though.
And at “My Heart Will Go On”. That ship went down and it’s staying down.
I need to purge myself clean of this filth. Maybe this will help.
jeff buckley - eternal life (live)
Uploaded by aosonho
I can’t not blog this really. These guys have gotten together to raise awareness about the issues their generation faces… Featuring 100 year old “mugger-fightin’” Buster Martin and internet legend Peter Oakley (alias “geriatric1927″), here are The Zimmers:
As recommended by Rik “Scroobius” Abel, I bring you the wonderful “Atlas” by Battles:
